www.elsblog.org - Bringing Data and Methods to Our Legal Madness

03 May 2009

David Souter's Pen

(Please excuse the slightly off-topic nature of this post, but this was too good not to pass along).

One of my hobbies (my spouse would say "afflictions") is collecting and using vintage fountain pens. In the pursuit of that afflic... er... hobby, I came across this discussion, the central point of which is that Justice Souter is also a fountain pen aficionado; specifically, he uses "an old Esterbrook from forty or fifty years ago."

Fountain pen nuts will immediately know what I mean when I say that I can't think of a more Souter-esque pen than an "Estie." They have a reputation as "blue collar" pens -- no Mont Blancs here -- but while they're not flashy, they are unfailingly reliable. (Full disclosure: My very first fountain pen was a red Esterbrook J, purchased while I was still in graduate school; it lives on my desk to this day).